phillsacre.me.uk

This started out as a comment on Matthew’s blog post, but I then hit the word limit and decided that it probably worked better as a proper blog post!

So, if you haven’t already, go and read Matthew’s blog post, and then pretend that you’re reading a comment on his blog. (Except that here it’s not in a really tiny font which you need a magnifying glass to see ;)

Gosh, I didn’t realise you were so judgemental – how awful ;) Seriously though, I do the same kind of thing. I think driving brings out the worst in people – when I’m driving I’m irritable, short-tempered, impatient, selfish etc. Don’t really know what it is, but driving definitely has some kind of effect me on other things don’t!

I think it’s something to do with stress levels – driving is actually quite a stressful experience for me. There’s something about always having to be alert and watching out for all the other idiots on the road which raises the stress levels.

Having said all that, to mention a few of your points… there are good reasons for not doing 70mph, mainly petrol consumption. I think the ideal speed for petrol usage is around 56mph. Although I do sit around 70 on the motorway! I do go faster occasionally, mainly when overtaking (if a car is doing slightly less than what I want to do, I will speed up so I don’t hold up the cars behind me).

I also feel the need to defend my choice of car. I own a Saab 9-3 which has a 2.0 litre turbocharged engine, producing about 154bhp. It’s not exactly a monster, petrol-guzzling engine but it’s probably more than I need. The petrol consumption isn’t too bad if you get going – I reckon around 40mpg on the motorway, 30-35 otherwise. (It usually hovers around 35 on the computer thingum).

So why do I drive it then? Well, because it’s a good, reliable car which will hopefully last. Recent problems aside, Saabs are generally known for lasting a long time – apparently the guy who services my car said he services another similar 9-3 which has done over 400,000 miles!

To my mind it was more environmentally sound to buy a car that had already been made (it was second-hand), almost ten years old, but still had plenty of life left in it – even if it wasn’t quite as efficient as a smaller, more modern car. [Apparently building a car accounts for 1/3 of the carbon emissions of its lifetime!] And it is a very comfortable car, well-designed and made, which despite its age is still in very good condition.

Aaaaanyway. I pretty much agree on all the other points – a pet peeve of mine is people who drive inconsiderately. But yes, I am guilty of being judgemental when driving, and that’s not a good thing :(

Thanks to the summer holidays, not much is going on at the moment! It’s been rather nice having the free evenings. We’ve been so busy for so long, it’s fantastic just to be able to get home in an evening and not have to go out to home group, Moore Course, youth club, music practice, PCC meetings, or whatever else we have to do. Next year we will definitely be cutting down the amount of stuff we do!

So, on Friday night we had a nice evening in. On Saturday afternoon, I helped our friend Sarah to buy a car! She passed her test a few weeks ago and so was looking to buy a relatively cheap small car. Unfortunately, there aren’t many cheap small cars around at the moment: because of the cheap road tax and insurance, it seems most people want small cars! But still, after looking round a few places we did manage to find a suitable Ford Fiesta (2000 registration) which would do nicely. It had done a good few miles (about 80,000) but it looked like it had been cared for and for the miles she’s likely to be doing will probably be fine. It was miles better than the Ford Ka we tried the week before anyway!

On Sunday we went to the morning service and Sunday@6 as per usual. Not much to say really – we had a nice quiet afternoon! Afterwards we came back home and watched Top Gear, which was very funny once again. And… that’s pretty much it for the weekend!

I’ve been meaning to write something on this topic for a while now, and I think I’ve probably missed the boat, but that’s never stopped me before so why stop now?

Petrol prices have been rising steadily since I can remember. However, in the past few months they’ve risen steeply – it now costs well over a pound per litre. A lot of people have been calling for the government to intervene, i.e. by lowering tax on petrol.

I’m not sure that would be a good move: there are a few positives to petrol prices being high. Namely:

• There are now less people on the roads. It’s actually quite noticeable, driving to work in rush hour – there is less traffic around. Admittedly we are currently in the summer holidays so there’s less traffic around anyway, but aside from that it does seem the traffic has eased off a bit. And of course, less traffic generally means shorter journey times!
• People are going more slowly, on average. This can’t be a bad thing!
• It discourages people from using the car unnecessarily, meaning less CO2 emissions. Again, a good thing.
• It encourages people to use public transport where possible.

All in all, although there are definite downsides to higher petrol prices, sometimes it’s good to look on the bright side :-)

I’ve been having a few car problems recently: In early December last year, one of the fuel injectors went. This wasn’t a hugely expensive operation to fix, but it still cost money which could have been used elsewhere! Yesterday, I got into the car and tried to start it. It stalled straight away, so I tried again – and nothing happened. The car turns over, but it’s making a strange sound. I don’t know whether it’s the starter motor or something like that, but either way I’m wondering whether it’s worth hanging onto the car much longer.

The problem is, it’s eight years old now. It’s been quite reliable up until this point, but it’s at the age now where things start going wrong and I don’t know whether it’s worth keeping around given that we only drive the car two or three times a week.

So anyway, I’ve been thinking about getting a new car. My selection criteria would be:

• Reliable, i.e. doesn’t keep going wrong
• Midrange size (my current car – a Hyundai Lantra 1.6 GSI – is a little big)…
• … but still safe enough on motorways (i.e., not a Metro!)
• Practical
• … but still a bit fun to drive!
• Finally, and probably most importantly, it can’t be too expensive (we’re talking second-hand here)!

On the basis of that, my initial thoughts were along the lines of:

• VW Golf
• Ford Focus
• Honda Civic

Interestingly, one of the houses I walk past on the way to work has a Honda Civic Type R for sale, I’ve just noticed it the past week or two.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions or comments then please leave a comment below or drop me a line!